Younis Khan dejected at being rejected for ODIs

DUBAI // Younis Khan, the Pakistan batsman, was surprised after selectors dropped him for the five-match one-day series against South Africa.

Younis, 35, said he is fitter than he was at 24 and is not happy about being left off the team for the 50-over format of the game.

“It was shocking news for me,” Younis said on Monday.

The middle-order batsman is a veteran of ODIs and has scored 7,014 runs, but was also ignored for the last series against Zimbabwe. He retired from the shortest format of cricket in 2009 after leading Pakistan to victory at the World Twenty20 in England.

“These kinds of things have not happened to me for the first time,” Younis said. “I am happy that someone has replaced me and if he performs ... I will be the first happy person.”

Younis said age had never been on his mind and said there were other former captains, such as Imran Khan, and present captain Misbah-ul-Haq, who performed despite being on the wrong side of 30.

“The day I feel I can’t play, I will be an honest man to leave, but not like this to get dropped,” Younis said. “People feel that I don’t want to play ... but it’s not like that. I will leave with a bang, and Inshallah, on a top level.”

Younis could score only one in Pakistan’s healthy total of 442 in the first innings of the first Test last week as Pakistan went 1-0 up with a seven-wicket victory over South Africa.

He was together with Misbah, who hit a winning six in a short run-chase of 40, in the second innings after South Africa had reduced Pakistan to seven for three.

Younis said he was reminding his teammates how the Proteas hammered them 3-0 in the Test series in February and the conditions were ideal for them to make amends for the big loss.

“Our plan is very simple, play positive cricket and if they do mistakes we will grab those mistakes,” Younis said.

sports@thenational.ae

Who was Alfred Nobel?

The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.

In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.

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7.05pm: Handicap $135,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Cliffs Of Capri, Tadhg O’Shea, Jamie Osborne.

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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